21 Mar Midwest states in top 10 small-tech hotspots
Small Times magazine has just put out in its March edition a list of leading technology states in the U.S. Its focus is primarily on the environment for formation and development of nanotechnology and microtechnology companies, which will include some biotechnology and medical devices and diagnostics.
Before I provide you with their results, it’s important to know the key factors they used to compute their ranking. They looked at these factors: research, industry, venture capital, innovation, workforce and costs.
Interestingly, the Midwest had three states in the top 10. Let’s take a look:
In addition, Small Times has put together a list of states to watch due to their growth or decline. These include:
Connecticut: Ranked No. 9 in 2004 and lost ranking due to lower capture of federal R&D awards.
Colorado: State on the rise.
Pennsylvania: Ranked No. 7 in 2004 and has an impressive research community.
Virginia: Active in military work.
Florida: Seems that a lot of federal dollars are fed into local research and innovation.
Wisconsin: While Madison is the driving horse, can Madison do it alone?
So what’s driving our Midwest states?
Michigan: The state is building strength in small numbers with several start-ups finding traction during 2004. These companies aggressively pursued SBIR funding. A lot of intellectual property is coming out of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
Illinois: Northwestern University received from the NSF $15 million in a five-year federal grant to establish a nanotech learning center.
There are about a dozen microtech and nanotech centers on the Chicago and Champaign-Urbana campuses of the University of Illinois, the University of Chicago, Argonne National Labs and Fermi. However, Illinois has not been so productive in SBIR funding. Improvements were seen in both patenting and funding activities.
Ohio: Steady gains were seen in this state without big-splash items. Columbus, Cleveland and Dayton all seem to be thriving. Ohio State University garnered a $12.9 million NSF award for a nano-engineering center to make nano devices for biomedical applications. The Cleveland Clinic and the CASE Comprehensive Cancer Center made themselves known nationally as nanomedical centers of excellence.
All in all, the Midwest fared well in this assessment with three of its eight states in the top 10 for microtech and nanotech. See you next week!
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